The Art of Living
by Nikka-Hime
Summary: Two years extra in the academy, what would that change about the original rookie 9? How about the world turning into everybody's nightmare? Nobody's safe and it seem that the god's are angry. Where does Sakura fit in? Rated M for safety. It is the So Sick remake


**Hey viewers this is Nikka-Hime and I just wanted to hurry up and upload the new and improved version of So Sick. Although the story does not have the same beginning as so sick I promise you that this is essentially the same story only better. It took me a while to find a way to set up the mood for this story, but I am proud of what I came uo with. When I reread So Sick it seemed so generic so I tried to think of a different approach to introduce the story. So I hope you enjoy it.**

Aoi-Blue

Daichi- Great Wisdom

Yuki-Snow

Hitoshi- long-lived

Kuma-Bear

Hotaru-Firefly

Same-Shark

**Chapter 1: Time of Dying**

**On the ground I lay  
Motionless in pain  
I can see my life flashing before my eyes  
Did I fall asleep?  
Is this all a dream  
Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare**  
-**Three Days Grace**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXArt of LivingXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX**

Three genin and a Jonin were walking back towards leaf after an escort mission. "Mori-sensei when we get back can we go to the bar-b-que place to eat there again", an excited young boy with spiky orange hair dressed in a blue shirt and brown pants. "Maybe, it depends if the Hokage has anything else for us to do", he asked back. "Awww Sensei we've been going on a lot of missions lately, is that usual", asked a girl with brown hair pulled into a high ponytail wearing an orange tank and white shorts. "Well Yuki just think of this as a way to get stronger. The more missions you take on the more experience you will get and as soon as you know it you will be promoted to a chunin", their sensei known as Mori tried to calm her down. The boy with the blue and brown attire on, also known as Aoi, looked up excited at the thought of being promoted and started to run ahead. "Slow down Aoi", the teacher said and watch the excited boy run.

"You should let him keep running sensei, then maybe he would be to tired to talk", the last member of the team remarked. He had short dark brown hair pulled all the way in the back of his head wearing a red shirt and black pants. "Well if that's the case, if he passes out from exhaustion your carrying him Hitoshi", Mori countered. Before Hitoshi could reply Yuki cut in and said "hey, sensei I don't hear Aoi any more". Mori stopped and listen to see if he could hear Aoi, but he couldn't, infact he didn;t hear anything not even the sounds of animals.

"Hitoshi, Yuki prepare yourselves it seems we have company", Mori said. He then motioned them to follow him to find Aoi. It didn't take them long to find Aoi's pouch as well as some blood. "Aoi", Yuki whispered. Hitoshi and Mori looked put out about them not finding Aoi. "Where's Aoi", Yuki asked refusing the chance that he could infact be dead. "We will find him Yuki don't worry", Mori tried to reassure her, but it only seemed to make her even more frantic.

Mori's instincts told him to grab Hitoshi and Yuki, and start running, he did just that. With both genins on his back he told them to hang on as tight as they could. However as fast as they were dragged to hang on his back they were falling off as their sensei seemed to be tripped. "Yuki, Hitoshi run they heard their sensei, but before they had a chance to do something they were staring in the eyes of a pale man with snake eyes. "Orochimaru get away from them", they heard their sensei called as he raced towards them. Orochimaru cocked his head towards their sensei and with graceful moves struck their sensei withva hand through his chest.

They were shocked be because their sensei who they looked up to was dead in front of them with the snake bastard standing over him. "Now children why don't you come with me", thte man known as Orochimaru said. The next thing they knew it was black.

**Three Days Later**

(Static) "Kuma reporting at location A, no signs of movement", a gruff voice said from behind an anbu mask. "Hotaru at point B reporting the same, no signs of life", added another more feminine voice under an anbu mask also. "Same at point C, all clear, we move out on my signal", finished another Anbu who was recognized as the captin. With that the anbu known as Same waved two fingers out and all the anbu sped towards a rundown hideout.

"Do you think he is here", Hotaru asked. "Lets hope not so we have time to find the children", Kuma answered. "I think we can handle one Sanin together", Hotaru added snidedly. "Hotaru don't get cocky he's a Sanin for a reason. We are not to engage him in battle only protect the surviving genin", Same snapped speeding towards the hideout and suddenly stopping. "Why did you stop", asked Kuma. "Do you smell that", Same answered.

"Tell me that's not", Hotaru was cut off. "Indeed it's blood and lots of it from the smell of it, it's not fresh", Same answered. "Shit", Hotaru cursed under her breath. "I'm going to investigate, and I want you to to stay out here on gaurd. If anything happens you no what to do", before they could reply Same was slipping inside the blood perfumed hideout.

"So you think some are still alive", Hotaru asked. "Well considering that it was Orochimaru who was behind the kidnapping of the young genin and chunin, I can only pray that they are alive", Kuma replied. "Yeah let's hope", added Hotaru, "if only I was stronger than I would wish Orochimaru here so that I can kill him vicuously for putting those children through this torcher".

"Isss that sssoooo?", a voice hissed out and before either of them had time to turn around they were beheaded. Hotaru's head landed in a postion that she saw Orochimaru walk into the hideout. The sound of the door slamming was the only sound she could remember as her vision blurred.

**Four Hours Later**

"Anbu team Hachi come in", a voice crackled through a particually crushed communicator. "Anbu team Hachi, are you there", the voice added.

"They are not answering, they were suppose to meet us at this checkpoint two hours ago with news of the missing teams", the voice from the communicator told his commanding officer. "Where are their coordinates", the commanding officer asked his subordinates. "One-hundred miles west and seventy-two miles north", he replied. The commanding officer also known as the captin looked towards his three surbordinates and said "Gear up we are taking a detour". Nobody dared to refuse the request and quickly did what he said.

The anbu leader combed his silver gravity defying hair back while looking up towards the sky as to offer some kind of prayer. He then looked back at his team and barked in a deep tone "let's move out!" Then all four anbu's disappeared in a blur and ruffled leaves.

**Thirty minutes later**

"What the hell is this?", one of the anbu's said observing his fellow beheaded comrades formally known as Kuma and Hotaru. "Ika calm down we don't need to alert whoever did this of our presence here", the captin said. However before they were able to continue the grass before them caved in not giving them enough time to jump away.

A few moments of silence passed allowing the anbu's to gather themselves. The captin called out "status report" and recieved three responses of no injuries. He then stood pushing off the floor with his hands but noticed that they were wet. "What is this" another female voice of an anbu said in the distance. "This smells like", the captin said and to confirm his suspicions he took out a flashlight.

The shrill screams of a woman and muffled screams of the men anbu's were the only thing that was heard within the mile.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXArt of LivingXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX**

Saness is what the hokage felt as he heard the report of the many young Shinobi's that lost heir lives not to long ago. It seemed that Orochimaru only targeted genin and chunin during missions outside the village. The third Hokage looked down at the pictures on his desk and thought 'I should of known that Orochimaru was behind this after the first batch of genins went missing on a simple escort mission. I can't understand how he became such a monster'. He was abruptly torn out of his thoughts when a loud bang on the door sounded. He motion towards the anbu to open the door, and as he did that the door revealed the elder council.

"Sandaime, what is all this talk about Orochimaru taking all of our genins and chunins, and why are we just learning about this", Koharu asked heatedly.

"(Sigh) I didn't want to believe it, but it seems that Orochimaru has been abducting young genin and chunins for his experiments. Anbu-san" he motioned towards the Anbu who moved close to the wall while they were talking "and his team have found an experiments lab outside of fire country where are missing ninjas were". "So I take it that some of them are dead", Danzo asked. "No", the hokage answered and after a short pause, "all of them died. We have every single one of them accounted for, while as much as we could". That brought silence to the room.

The hokage looked at the anbu and dismissed him with a slight nod. He then turned toward the council. "It is a shame when so many children die this young even if they are shinobi. They were all suppose to be the future of Konoha, but it seems that they all lost their lives because they were pushed out for duty to early in life".

"What are you thinking Sandaime", Danzo asked. "I am changing the curriculum of Konoha for the rising shinobi's". One gasp was heard from Koharu, while Homaru and Danzo looked shocked.

"Why", Danzo asked after a moment of silence. "Why?", the hokage repeated. "If you have to ask that then you really don't have a heart. If you have to ask why, when you see these pictures of our citizens slaughtered and tested on like animals", he threw the pictures at Danzo. "If you had to see the dead eyes of children and tell the parents what happened to them, then I will have to question your humanity. Those parents looked up to me, the hokage, to keep their children safe. I've had to assign missions to children where I knew that anything could happen, and it should not be like that" the hokage finished with his tanned wrinkled face flushed with overexertion. Taking a deep breath he added " I know that you do not like change, but change will need to be in order for the future of Konoha", he said looking at each and everyone of them.

To say that the council was shocked would be an understatement. They haven't heard the hokage that angry since he found out of the death of Minato. Taking in what he said they all looked at the pictures that he threw at them. The picture that they saw was enough to churn their stomachs. What used to be young shinobi were now only peices of them thrown around and also some complete bodies showed large amounts of torcher and the ones that were left were mismatch pieces sawn together to make full bodies. The sight of so much blood was sickening and many of the children were unrecognizable. They didn't realize that by sending them to duty this early life would rob them of so much, many of the lost shinobi just graduated from the academy. The pictures of torn children was enough to bring unnoticed tears to some eyes.

Hotaru, breaking out of his thoughts, looked up at the Hokage and said "I will support your decision in extending the school years for our yoing shinobi". Koharu also looked at the hokage being surprisingly silent said in a controlled voice, "I agree as well". They all looked at Danzo who really didn't want to be the center of attention at the moment. Danzo looked at the picture in his hand of the young boy with matted hair caked in blood, kunai stabbing his hands in place holding his body up against a wall with both legs shreded off and feet cut off. Although Danzo might not be the nicest or emotional-attach person on the planet, he was still a human and felt a sense of responsibility to the boy in this picture. With some resolve Danzo looked up and said "If it means two more years to better the next generation of shinobi then I believe that we should change the curriculum".

That day the hokage and council dedicated to constructing a new plan for the academy. They even talked about expansion plans for an inside training ground and more classrooms. The hokage looked down at the list of young shinobi's that were lost too early in life and said "never again".

This development unknowingly set a new future for many different people particularly one pink haired student.

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**Tell me how you like the new and improved version. No Sakura in this story and I'm sorry about that, but I promise that Sakura will appear in the next chapter. It took me a while to put everything together, but with this new beginning it will allow the story to transition easier. I also used Three Days Grace song Time of Dying for my inspiration for this story. The only thing is that I hate writing stories with gore especially involving kids, but I had to put it there for an example of who despicable Orochimaru. This also allowed me to be able to explain why teeam seven won't be team 7 until their 14. Why do you want them to graduate later you ask. Well thats for you to find out later. **

**Please stay tuned I will update again as possible. Also please review I need you input on the new introduction.**


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